Legislative Priorities Report Oct. 6, 2021
This week, Governor Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on the Legislature to restore penalties for election fraud to second-degree felonies, that had been reduced to misdemeanors in the SB1 Election Integrity bill passed during the second special session. To this end, Senator Bryan Hughes filed SB 9, which passed out of committee and should be on the Senate floor for a vote soon.
Speaker Dade Phelan issued a response rebuking Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick, refusing to reinstate the felony penalties for voter fraud which a House amendment reduced to a misdemeanor. Nevertheless, Rep. Mayes Middleton filed HB 136 to address the penalty issue and that bill has been referred to Constitutional Rights and Remedies Committee. Speaker Phelan simply must stop pandering to the Democrats and restore real consequences for cheating in our elections.
President Trump put out a statement calling for passage of Sen. Paul Bettencourt’s SB 47, authorizing a full Forensic Audit of the 2020 Presidential election in Texas. President Trump praised Lt. Gov. Patrick for sending the bill to the State Affairs Committee. This bill has now passed out of the Senate. Rep. Toth has filed a bill in the House, but Speaker Phelan has yet to assign the bill to a committee, meaning it has gone nowhere. Hopefully the Speaker will listen to the voices of Texas Republicans who want a full forensic audit, not one done behind the scenes by the staff of the Secretary of State’s office in targeted areas.
On Wednesday, the Constitutional Rights and Remedies Committee will hear HB 25, by Rep. Swanson, which prohibits boys from competing in girls’ sports. We would prefer that girls’ college sports was included. But the bill is at least a start to restore truthfulness that boys and girls are biologically different and should not be competing against each other, for either recreational or scholarship purposes, in Texas public schools.
Finally, because the Republican Party of Texas is greatly dismayed and alarmed by the violation of our individual sovereign rights by vaccine mandates, Chairman Matt Rinaldi has created a special committee to advocate for legislation banning all public and private vaccine mandates. He appointed SREC member Becky Green (SD 17) to chair the committee, which will call on Governor Abbott to add a comprehensive ban on vaccine mandates to the current call. Gov. Abbott’s current executive order bans only vaccine mandates by public entities and customer vaccine mandates by private entities receiving government funds. It does not ban private employer mandates of any kind, including by companies receiving government funds. We ask that private employers be included within the scope of the order and legislation similar to HB 14 by Rep. Toth be passed to protect citizens choosing to not get vaccinated from discrimination.
The Special Committee on Vaccine Mandates also wants to encourage Texans who may be facing job loss to tell their stories about vaccine mandates to Governor Abbott. Please stay tuned for more specific information on this coming soon from the RPT.
Action Items:
- Call/email Speaker Phelan to assign HB 136 and stop blocking the Election Integrity fix.
- Speaker’s phone number: 512-463-1000
- Send an email here.
- Call/email Speaker Phelan to move legislation for a forensic audit of the 2020 Presidential Election in Texas.
- Call/email the members of the Constitutional Rights Committee and urge passage of HB 25.
- Members can be found here. Click on each member to view their contact information.
- Call Governor Abbott and ask him to add a ban on Gender Mutilation to the call. It is a travesty that we have not been able to get a bill to protect minor children from these hideous “sex change” practices.
- Call 512-463-2000
- Send an email here.
- Call Governor Abbott and ask him to protect citizens from vaccine mandates. Texans should not have to lose their jobs over a personal health decision.
Please share this report with like-minded conservatives. So much is at stake right now in Texas and we need many people to help us save our state. We are hard-pressed on every side, but will not despair, we are Texans.
For God and Texas,
Jill Glover
SREC, SD 12
Chair, SREC Legislative Priorities Committee
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